In December, we were contacted by the Justice conference and asked to contribute a custom t-shirt graphic / concept for the event. The theme of the conference revolved around how justice was like a network of threads in a garment, and that should a single thread come loose, it has a chain reaction that eventually degrades and disbands the whole.

Keeping this theme in mind, I spent some time thinking about how to address this concept in a way that differentiates itself from the rest of the conference materials, yet still retained a unifying look. My final tee illustration/design concept was based on a network of pulleys, that when linked together, can lift weight well beyond that of a single rope alone. This was represented by the main handle on the bottom (with text that read ‘Support’) interconnected via a vast network of pulleys, that ultimately were supporting marginalized individuals in the center; whose expressions and markings were designed to represent a lack of justice.

In short, I wanted to create a graphic that boiled down to the idea that justice takes work, and that grabbing a hold of the handle is the first step in supporting others in need.

This post contains a few of our favorite cover designs from a recent book project called Psycho USA. In each direction the goal was to convey a sense of history, since the primary focus of the book is early American killers. At the same time, non-traditional design formatting was needed to bring readers into the appropriate emotional mindset for “shockingly true horror stories” that actually happened.

One of the best parts of this project was viewing the old wood cuts (done long before photography was invented) with crude drawings of ghastly crimes too menacing for the format to convey. At the same time, there was a sense of irony in how comical some of the drawings were, and in an odd way, the lack of perspective in the characters do a fabulous job of communicating the psycho nature of the criminals. They are drawings that today send shivers up your spine, but I had to wonder, given the time in history, if they would have had the same power when that particular style was the rule of the day. Makes me think a lot about how the development of photography forced American culture to view the crimes in a much more sophisticated and chilling way.

I hope you enjoy checking out what we’ve been up to.

In the fall I worked on a historical non-fiction book called Railroaded which told the story of the transcontinental lines in America. Since there are often multiple comps we are fond of, we thought we’d put together a few to share.

Pete Krebs might be the hardest working jazz guitarist and songwriter in Portland. He fronts three bands: The Stolen Sweets, Pete Krebs Trio, and now Pete Krebs and His Portland Playboys. Many also know him as a founding member of the band, Hazel – a quintessential Portland band from the early nineties who wrote the song “Everybody’s Best Friend”. This new release titled, The Early Sessions, is entirely country swing and showcases Pete at his best.

Pete talked to Wes about designing the new release after the two enjoyed some dialogue regarding early hill-billy acetate records. With that as a starting point, Wes went right to work combing his record collection to source all the right aged paper samples and materials. From the beginning of the project, both Pete and Wes loved the idea of something that included the mark of the hand. Even though it would be a compact disc, it was important that the design reminded us of the close relationship people have with a band, music, and album artwork. Subtle things like the check marks, owner signatures, and aged paper tones speak to the history of albums as an essential part of the musical experience. This design pays tribute to those who have to be close to the music, in a way that the exchange of online music will never fully satisfy.

For a full review of the album, check out the Willamette Week review online.

Join us as we celebrate the release with Pete and M.80 in Portland tonight.

We just got the word that we’ve been included in the upcoming book, Inside the World of Board Graphics, put out by Rockport. Our 5 submissions (a snow deck for Signal and our skate series by Bacon) have been included in both the hard and soft cover editions.

Read more about the book here.

Midnight Riot, Moon Over Soho, and Whispers Underground continue to get great placement in stores. We found them front and center at Barnes & Noble and Powell’s Books.

On November 9th 2010, we celebrated two years in the business by opening up the studio to the public. This coincided with our building’s annual open house, an event not to be missed since there are 5 floors of photography, art, and design. There’s also a fair amount of free local beer provided by each studio if you know what I mean. We had the studio keg filled with Widmer Broken Halo.

For the open house, we turned the studio into a gallery and invited two of our favorite artists to show their wares. EATCHO covered the walls with recent illustrations and Robert Delahanty showed documentary photography from time he spent with Mark Borchart while in production of his latest movie.

Through the course of the night we had around 900 people come through the doors. I should make a special note that we managed to book Elvis for two 20min performances which were met with rave reviews.